The calendar says September, but the Royals decided to play like it's April

It’s difficult to think that anyone ordered up a rerun of a game played in April or May, but that’s what we were served on Tuesday night at Kauffman Stadium. The Los Angeles Angels of Orange County in Anaheim, California, rolled into town, a team that hasn’t been relevant since the Royals dispatched them in three straight games in the 2014 ALDS. They entered play seven games under .500 and 11 games back in the AL West. They’re around seven back in the Wild Card.

As a baseball team goes, they’re about as nondescript and mediocre as one can be.

Apparently, that makes them dangerous when they play the Royals.

The starter for the Angels on Tuesday was Mitch Farris. He was making his major league debut after spending the entire season in Double-A, pitching for the Rocket City Trash Pandas in the Southern League. He came to the Angels in an offseason trade with Atlanta, the organization that drafted Farris in the 14th round of the 2023 draft out of Wingate College.

Farris was not on the prospect radar prior to the 2025 season. As far as I know, the only time he made a prospect list of note was in 2024 at FanGraphs where he was listed as Atlanta’s 26th best prospect. This is how they started their scouting report:

Farris is a small school lefty with a graceful, repeatable delivery and a classic vertical arm stroke that helps him hide the ball for a long time.

Oh my god. I don’t think I need to read further. The Royals were doomed as soon as he walked out to the bullpen for his warmup.

If I had a nickel for every time the Royals succumbed to a pitcher either making their major league debut or very early in their big league career—and a lefty no less—I would have a bagful of nickels. I mean…how does this always seem to happen? FanGraphs talked about some upside they saw:

He deploys two effective secondary pitches (a screwball-style changeup from a high slot and a low-spin breaking ball reliant on Farris’ command), and his ability to locate his fastball helps keep it out of trouble even though it isn’t all that hard. It will be more vulnerable as he climbs the minors, but it’s plausible Farris could yet throw harder given his small school background and frame/mechanics combo.

In other words, give him the tools of a pro organization, and it’s possible he could put a little more oomph behind his four-seamer. Reader, his average fastball checked in at 90.7 mph on Tuesday. The Royals put six of those fastballs in play, with an average exit velocity of 97.1 mph. Five of them went for outs. At least one of those outs was a Vinnie Pasquantino sacrifice fly that scored the Royals only run of the night.

Farris walked Maikel Garcia on a 3-2 pitch to open the game and wild-pitched him to second. Yet he battled against Bobby Witt Jr. and got his first major league strikeout on a changeup that was a very borderline check swing.

From there, Farris settled in, and the Royals never really threatened. Sure, Witt hit a triple in the third and scored on the Pasquantino sacrifice fly. And the Royals did put runners on first and second with two outs in the second. I admire the commitment of Kyle Isble to TOOTBLAN (Thrown Out On The Bases Like A Nincompoop) on a pickoff/caught stealing in the fifth. Isbel has swiped second base three times this year. He’s now been caught five times trying to steal second. That’s not good.

It was a game that just felt all too familiar to what we frequently saw in the season’s first half…At the most inopportune time…Against a team and a pitcher they should be handling.

To continue with the flashback vibes, the Royals got a quality start from Michael Lorenzen, just the ninth one the rotation has recorded since the All-Star Break. He was extremely sharp in his first 5.2 innings. The lone mistake he made was a fatal one: A bit of a hanging curve to Jo Adell with two outs and a runner on in the top of the sixth. Adell obliterated that offering, launching it 454 feet.

I write that it was a bit of a hanger, but I don’t think it was an altogether terrible pitch. However, the low inside offering isn’t the best location when battling Adell. Hang it in that location and he can definitely crush it.

Lorenzen finished the night with five strikeouts and just a single walk. He was backed by some quality defense with a nice play from Nick Loftin coming in on a sinking ball in left and a fantastic diving stab from Witt at short.

But the home run was what allowed the Angels to grab the lead. The Royals could not respond. The Angels tacked on a few more runs off of relievers John Schreiber and Luinder Avila. The Royals got just one hit against four Angels relievers.

It was April all over again.

Do we even want to check on the other teams in the Wild Card race? Ok…we can.

The Guardians lost to the Red Sox on Tuesday, and the Yankees beat the Astros. So that’s the top two teams in the race claiming victory. Not great, but those aren’t really the teams the Royals are chasing at this point. Although it was nice to see Cleveland take the “L.”

The Mariners lost 6-5 to the Rays, and the Rangers dropped their game in Arizona to the Diamondbacks by a score of 5-3. The Rays…sigh. I haven’t considered them for about a month, and now they’re winners of five straight, and guess what a modest winning streak gets you in the “six-teams-in-the-playoffs” era? Yep. They’re officially back in the race.

Any one of the teams below the dotted line is a bad week from eliminating themselves.